Prepare your book manuscript

Prepare your book manuscript with our author guidelines for books and book series. Submit your manuscript to your commissioning editor. 

Writing support

Your editorial team will be in touch regularly to check on progress and help you throughout the writing phase, we also have author how-to guides and manuscript services to support you.

Read or download our author guidelines before you submit your manuscript. 

Download author guidelines (PDF)

Author how-to guides

Read our expert how-to guides on planning, structuring and revising your work. 

Read our author guides

Manuscript services

We work in partnership with Editage who can help you with language editing and translation, visuals, consulting, or anything else required to get your research submission-ready. 

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Order of material

Place your material in the following order for each chapter.

  • Title page (Title, Author(s), Affiliations)
  • Running head (up to 65 characters in length)
  • Abstract
  • Main text
  • Try to subdivide into sections using headings/subheadings
  • Headings of sections and subsections must be short, clearly defined and not numbered
  • Acknowledgements (if applicable)
  • Appendix (if applicable)
  • References
  • Figures (if applicable)
  • Tables (if applicable)

Abstract & keywords

You will be asked to supply an abstract of 250 words maximum. Each chapter in an edited collection needs an abstract. Include as many keywords as you can in this abstract so your book or chapters are easy to discover online. Please also provide up to six keywords which encapsulate the principal topics of the book or chapter.

Read Make your content easy to find with SEO to help you choose your keywords. 

Direct quotations

Provide the quote source and the page or paragraph number in brackets at the end of the quotation. Include:

  • Author
  • Year
  • Specific page citation or paragraph number

Appendices

  • Appendices will be placed at the end of the reference section and should follow this format.
  • If a chapter contains two appendices, the first appendix should be named as Appendix A and the second appendix should be named as Appendix B.
  • The numbering of the figures and tables in the appendix should be named as A1, A2, A3, etc., even if there is only one appendix.
  • If Appendix A has three equations, the equations should be named as A.1, A.2 and A.3.

References

Your references should use the American Psychological Association (APA) 6th Edition style. See our example references below, or find out more on the APA website.

Citations

For two-authors references, cite both names at every citation in the text. For three to five-author references, cite all authors at the first citation and at subsequent citations, include only the surname of the first author followed by et al. For six or more authors, include the surname of the first author followed by et al. for all the citations (see below for exception rules). All parenthetical citations should be in alphabetical order as per the reference list.

Reference list

Invert all authors' names; give surnames and initials for up to and including seven authors. When authors number eight or more, include the first six authors’ names, then insert three ellipsis points, and add the last author’s name.

Example

  • Cooper, M.C., Lambert, D.M., Mooper, A., Pagh, J., Koper, K., Bert, M., Asper, D. & Lagh, T. (1997). Supply Chain Management: More Than a New Name for Logistics. The International Journal of Logistics Management, 8, 1–14.
  • In the page proofs, the above reference will appear as: Cooper, M.C., Lambert, D.M., Mooper, A., Pagh, J., Koper, K., Bert, M., . . . Lagh, T. (1997). Supply Chain Management: More Than a New Name for Logistics. The International Journal of Logistics Management, 8, 1–14.

For references with the same surname and initials but different first name please provide the first name also.

Example

  • Janet, P. [Paul]. (1876). La notion de la personnalite [The notion of personality]. Revue Scientifique, 10, 574–575.
  • Janet, P. [Pierre]. (1906). The pathogenesis of some impulsions. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1, 1–17.
  • Text citation to be given as follows:
    • (Paul Janet, 1876)
    • (Pierre Janet, 1906)

For references of two or more primary authors with the same surname, include the first author's initials in all text citations, even if the year of publication differs.

Example

  • Light, I. (2006). Deflecting immigration: Networks, markets, and regulation in Los Angeles. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
  • Light, M. A., & Light, I. H. (2008). The geographic expansion of Mexican immigration in the United States and its implications for local law enforcement. Law Enforcement Executive Forum Journal, 8, 73–82.
  • Examples of text citation:
    • Among studies, we review M.A. Light and Light (2008). 
    • Light (2006) studies this concept.

If two references of more than three surnames with the same year shorten to the same form.

Example

Both Ireys, Chernoff, DeVet, & Kim, 2001, and Ireys, Chernoff, Stein, DeVet, & Silver, 2001 shorten to Ireys et al., 2001). Then cite the surnames of the first authors and of as many of the subsequent authors as necessary to distinguish the two references, followed by a comma and et al.: Ireys, Chernoff, DeVet, et al. (2001) and Ireys, Chernoff, Stein, et al. (2001).

Books/Reports/DVDs

Each reference should include four elements:

  • Author/Editor/Producer
  • Date
  • Title
  • Publication Information

Example

Smith, M. (2004). Wrestling with the angel: A life of Janet Frame. Auckland, New Zealand: Viking.

If the book is available online, a retrieval statement or DOI is required after (3) Title. Exclude (4) Publication Information. 

Example

Schiraldi, G. R. (2001). The post-traumatic stress disorder sourcebook: A guide to healing, recovery, and growth [Adobe Digital Editions version]. doi:10.1036/0071393722

Freud, S. (1953). The method of interpreting dreams: An analysis of a specimen dream. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 4, pp. 96-121). Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books (Original work published 1900)

Periodicals

Items published on a regular basis, such as journals, magazines and newspapers, are known as serials or periodicals. For these, include the same elements as for a book, but exclude the publication information and add the volume, issue and page number(s) instead:

  • Author(s)
  • Date
  • Title of article
  • Title of Periodical
  • Volume, Issue and Page numbers

Example
•    Sainaghi, R. (2003).Strategic position and performance of winter destinations. Tourism Review, 63(4), 40–57.

If the article is available online, a retrieval statement or DOI is required after the page numbers.

Example
•    Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005).Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24, 225– 229. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.24.2.225
•    Sillick, T. J., & Schutte, N. S. (2006). Emotional intelligence and self-esteem mediate between perceived early parental love and adult happiness. EJournal of Applied Psychology, 2(2), 38-48. Retrieved from http://ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index.php/ejap

Webpages (unpublished and informally published work)

Include the same elements as for a book, but exclude the publication information and add a retrieval statement in its place.

•    Author
•    Date
•    Title
•    Retrieval statement

Example
•    Statistics New Zealand. (2007).New Zealand in profile 2007. Retrieved from http://www.stats.govt.nz

Include a retrieval date if the source material is likely to change over time (Publication Manual, p. 192).

Example
•    Van Nuys, D. (Producer). (2007, December 19). Shrink rap radio [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.shrinkrapradio.com/

Permissions

Before you submit your manuscript, you should clear permission to use any content that you have not created. We are unable to publish any material that has permission pending.

The rights we require are:

  • Non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the article or book chapter
  • Print and electronic rights
  • Worldwide English language rights
  • To use the material for the life of the work (in other words, there should be no time restrictions on the re-use of material, for example a one-year licence)

When you submit your manuscript, you should complete a permissions checklist form and attach it to the chapter copyright transfer agreement form. Visit our permissions page for more information.

Figures, tables & illustrations

  • Make sure that tables/figures/illustrations are complete with necessary superscripts shown, both next to the relevant items and with the corresponding explanations or levels of significance shown as footnotes in the tables and figures.
  • Submit all figures electronically (charts, diagrams and line drawings)
  • Figures should be of clear quality, and numbered consecutively e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2
  • If any figure has sub-parts please label as Figure 1a, Figure 1b
  • Number tables consecutively e.g. Table 1, Table 2
  • Submit high resolution illustrations and label them clearly with the chapter and figure number.
  • Supply succinct and clear captions for all tables, figures and plates.
  • You can supply colour graphics, they will in colour online but will be printed in black and white.
  • In the text of the chapter, the preferred position of all figures/illustrations should be indicated by typing on a separate line the words “Take in figure (No.)” or “Take in plate (No.)”. Type and included any tables as part of the manuscript rather than as graphic elements.

Word count

Your contract will specify an agreed maximum word count.

Transparency & openness

We are a signatory of the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines, a framework that supports the reproducibility of research through the adoption of transparent research practices. As a result, we encourage you to:

  • Cite and fully reference all data, programme code, and other methods in your manuscript.
  • Include persistent identifiers, such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), in references for datasets and programme codes.
  • Follow relevant international and national procedures whenever you cite data.

Your next steps

Your editor may commission a final review of your manuscript. Our editorial team will then check through your final manuscript before we put it into production.

Understand the production process

Download our infographic showing the publication process after you submit your manuscript through to publication. 

Download our infographic

Promote your work

We have some great tips to help you promote your book. Find out about increasing the impact and visibility of your publication.

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Understand the publishing process

See all the steps in our book publishing process and download our helpful infographic. 

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